LONDON — The biggest question mark on the London Knights roster right now isn’t who will play wing on the fourth line or make up the team’s third blue-line pairing.

It’s the grey area currently surrounding the defending OHL champion’s most indispensable player — Canadian world junior defenceman and potential captain Scott Harrington.

In a normal season, the Kingston native’s options would be fairly limited. He would either have to crack his big-league club — in this case, the Pittsburgh Penguins — or be sent back to London for a fourth campaign of major junior hockey, but these are uncertain times.

The Canadian Hockey League’s old transfer agreement with the NHL has expired, and though it is separate and distinct from the NHL’s collective bargaining agreement with its players, there has been some hope, with Tampa Bay general manager Steve Yzerman among the most outspoken proponents, of allowing elite 19-year-olds with three years of junior under their belts to jump to the American Hockey League, which wasn’t permitted under the previous arrangement.

A top-notch 19-year-old with three years of junior hockey to his name, Harrington fits into that category.

“It is what it is,” London head coach Dale Hunter said. “You really don’t know what’s going to happen. If it’s decided talented guys like a Ryan Murphy in Kitchener, and Harry’s in that category, too, are allowed to go up, then you just wish them the best.

“That’s what we’re trying to do, move guys up. You’re happy for them when they do.”

There is an expectation NHL teams will operate under the terms under the old transfer agreement until a new one is sorted out but until then the question is going to linger.

Harrington is in the same limbo as all his drafted mates still wondering if they’ll attend an NHL training camp this fall.

“You just wait. There really isn’t anything you can do or tell them,” Dale Hunter said. “As a player, you just have to stay in shape and be ready in case you’re leaving (for training camp) the next day.

“It’s the business of the game. I’ve been part of it as a player where we were out until January one year. They missed the whole season (in 2004-05). You don’t know how long it’s going to be.”

There are few guarantees. London lost Sam Gagner to the Edmonton Oilers after one year and defenceman Michael Del Zotto cracked the New York Rangers’ lineup at age 19.